1995 Reports

Decision making localization and decentralization in Japanese MNCs: Are there costs of leaving local managers out of the loop?

Beechler, Schon; Stephan, John; Pucik, Vladimir; Campbell, Nigel

This paper reports results on decision making decentralization and localization in a study of 119 Japanese affiliates located in Europe and the U.S. The data indicate that decisions are generally decentralized. However, they also show that Japanese managers are involved in 80% of all decisions, and many decisions are made without any involvement by local managers. Our data also indicate, however, that there are few significant relationships between decision making decentralization or localization and affiliate performance. Implications of the results are discussed.